<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>341096</docID> <postdate>2025-03-25 20:04:25</postdate> <headline>Budget focuses on power bills, tax cuts and healthcare</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-340963" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/20250323114691901624-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="601" /></p> <caption>Tax cuts, energy rebates, health and infrastructure spending are the focus of this year's budget. Photo: Mick Tsikas/AAP</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Jacob Shteyman</strong> in Canberra</span></p> <p><strong>Another two rounds of tax cuts, energy rebates, health and infrastructure spending are at the centre of this year's federal budget.</strong></p> <h3><span style="color: #800000;"><strong>FEDERAL BUDGET AT A GLANCE</strong></span></h3> <ul> <li> <p>Budget deficit of $27.6 billion this financial year</p> </li> <li> <p>Commonwealth gross debt to rise to $940 billion (33.7 per cent of GDP) in 2024/25 before cracking $1 trillion the year after</p> </li> <li> <p>Net debt to rise to $556 billion in 2024/25</p> </li> <li> <p>Economic growth to rise to 1.5 per cent in 2024/25</p> </li> <li> <p>Unemployment rate to rise to 4.25 per cent in 2024/25</p> </li> <li> <p>Consumer price index inflation to fall to 2.5 per cent in 2024/25</p> </li> <li> <p>Wages to rise by 3 per cent in 2024/25</p> </li> <li> <p>Living standards to rise, with growth in real household disposable income revised up from 1.25 per cent to 2 per cent in 2025/26</p> </li> <li> <p>Net overseas migration will fall from 435,000 in 2023/24 to 225,000 in 2026/27</p> </li> </ul> <h3><span style="color: #800000;"><strong>KEY MEASURES - IF LABOR IS RE-ELECTED</strong></span></h3> <ul> <li> <p>Two more tax cuts for every Australian taxpayer, worth about $10 per week when fully implemented, starting from July 2026</p> </li> <li> <p>Energy bill relief for households and one million small businesses extended for six months from July 1, worth $150 for each recipient at a cost of $1.8 billion</p> </li> <li> <p>Cheaper prescription drugs, with most payments capped at $25 per PBS medicine, costing $689 million over four years</p> </li> <li> <p>Disaster recovery funding worth $1.2 billion for southeast Queensland and northern NSW communities hit by ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred</p> </li> <li> <p>Increased access to Medicare bulk billing, 50 new urgent care clinics, funds for nursing scholarships and GP trainees costing more than $9 billion over four years</p> </li> <li> <p>Help to Buy shared equity housing program wage and price caps raised to increase access for first home buyers</p> </li> <li> <p>Banning non-compete clauses for low- and middle-income earners, which could lift the wages of affected workers by $2500 per year and lift GDP by $5 billion per year</p> </li> <li> <p>Slashing university student debt by 20 per cent, amounting to $16 billion in HECS debt from the headline cash balance</p> </li> <li> <p>Minimum three days of subsidised child care up to salary cap of $500,000, at a cost of $427 million over five years</p> </li> <li> <p>Defence spending worth $1 billion brought forward for guided weapons, AUKUS submarine base, frigate program</p> </li> <li> <p>Infrastructure upgrades, including $7.2 billion to upgrade the Bruce Highway in Queensland, $2 billion in to create a new rail hub in Melbourne's west as part of a future airport rail link and $1 billion for a rail corridor in Sydney's southwest</p> </li> </ul> </body>